[reaperducer]

I can give you an example that I witnessed back when we were still in the office pre-COVID.

Someone was making copies at the copy machine. Another person made a joke comment about him running off copies of his resume. A harmless remark that's been made millions of times in thousands of offices for as long as copy machines have existed.

The next day the commenter got hauled into HR for "harassment."

[sib]

That... is a very good example. Thanks for making it real.

At my last in-office role, I had employees (direct reports) give me similar comments if I happened to come into the office dressed particularly nicely. Certainly didn't feel like harassment!

[PretzelPirate]

When I’ve seen HR complaints in the past that seemed trivial, there was usually a history of interactions that resulted in the complaint, and the person filing has reached their limit.

That’s why HR is important - they need to determine if the complaint or history of complaints is a real issue or trivial.